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The 1960s are upon us. Beatlemania. Marilyn Monroe. Breakfast at Tiffanys.
In Berlin, however, a wall not only divides two cities – it separates worlds. Nowhere on the planet are the two superpowers closer, their differences more visible. Beneath the surface, however, it is the similarities which are equally striking. Checkpoint Charlie was one of the few checkpoints between West and East Berlin, heavily guarded and watched. It was also the central checkpoint through which Spies passed from one sector to the other. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to sniff around for the Chief of Spies trying to make it through Checkpoint Charlie undetected. And you can take the sniffing quite literally, as each player assumes the role of a dog, representing the K-9 division.

Russian Railroads is a European optimization game, subtype worker placement. Every game, you try to do better than the one before, optimize your strategy and score a bit higher. But it’s not a typical game of the genre. Where you often have a lack of options in other such games, only one or two routes to victory which you try to use as well as you can, Russian Railroads gives you many different, viable ways to score. Its many moving parts create a fascinating whole that will let you find new ways to a higher score for a long time.

Not the newest game we reviewed recently, Race for the Galaxy was first published in 2007. It’s still a very good and popular game, though and with the new expansion Alien Artifacts coming later this year now is a good time to have a look at it.

The right combination of two familiar game mechanics can create something new and fun. Sea of Clouds combines a drafting game with a press-your-luck mechanic. If you enjoy only one of those, then this game is definitely worth your time because it combines the best parts of them. And it does that while letting you loot the skies as a flying pirate, if you needed any more convincing.

The Witch of Salem is one of many board games set in Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos, and its art really makes that world come to life. Four scholars of the paranormal set out to keep the Great Old Ones imprisoned in R’lyeh. Will they succeed?

A train robbery can really ruin your day if you’re one of the passengers. Six bandits trying to rob your train at the same time, but working against each other? With a Marshal thrown in ot fend them off? That’s actually pretty hilarious to watch. And on the gorgeous 3D train of Colt Express, it’s even more fun. All of the chaos, in three dimensions.

Everywhere you look lately, the news are about the economy. It’s boring , like a roller coaster you’re not allowed to ride. Masters of Commerce allows you to experience the same roller coaster, but instead of finding a bridge when you lost everything, you can have fun going bankrupt.

Ad Astra is not quite a board game, it skips the concept of a game board and makes the table top the playing area. There is some mechanics from Settlers of Catan there, some from Puerto Rico and a bit from Robo Rally, all combined to a delicious mix